Horsley: Litter bugs aren't bad people - just thoughtless

April might be the cruelest month, but March can be awfully unkind, velocitywise. As a tribute to our windiest month, let's talk trash.

HORSLEY

Blowing trash, that is.

I recall my first spring in the Panhandle. We moved here in February, and I couldn't figure out why so many people decorated their trees and shrubs with plastic grocery sacks. Was this some sort of Panhandle equivalent to Mexican luminarios?

Then in March the wind kicked in, and I realized how those sacks got into those trees. Even now as I type these words, I look out the window and see, puffing like a wind sock, a white plastic grocery sack in a tree.

Common sense suggests that people living in windy areas should exercise care with their trash, lest it become airborne. It's my impression that most Panhandle folks are careful with trash, dutifully placing it where it belongs.

But with Mother Nature conspiring to evenly distribute loose trash throughout the 26 counties of our region, it only takes a few litterbugs to create quite an eyesore. You'd think people would be more careful.

One reader of this column lives outside the Amarillo city limits and considers himself at the front line of the litter war. Let's call him Ralph.

Ralph's neighbors don't seem to care how their road looks. Once or twice a year, he'll get out the garbage bags and clean the road from his house to the blacktop.

"Last spring," Ralph writes, "I picked up four 55-gallon trash bags full of garbage. ... (M)y neighbors see me dragging those bags along the ditch, but do they care? I guess not, because no one else seems to bother cleaning it up, but they will roll down their car window and throw out that empty cigarette pack or 65-oz. drink cup. ... (T)he wind will eventually carry it from their yard to the ditch, and there it will stay until I make my bi-yearly cleanup."

Ralph can't understand why people don't take more pride in how their environment looks.

"With respect to this newfound patriotic spirit since the 9/11 attacks, I feel such pride every time I see our American flag displayed, but then when you see some of these same people, the ones who are flying the flag from their vehicles, those who wear them on their T-shirts, leather coats, Levi jackets, etc. ... these people who love their country so much they proudly fly that flag, then they throw out that dirty diaper in the Wal-Mart parking lot? Or dump the ashtray at the traffic light?"

I agree that littering seems unpatriotic.

"I've seen them throw full bags of McDonald's trash out the window while doing 70 mph down Soncy Road, with that flag proudly flying. What is going on here? Who are these people? Why are they doing this?"

I know what Ralph means about Soncy Road. You'd think that people who live in the tony part of Amarillo would have more pride. Recently I noticed a field of wheat stubble on the west side of Soncy absolutely decorated with trash. It looked like someone had spent a month hanging a piece of garbage on every single wheat stalk.

"My dear mother taught me to pick up after myself," Ralph continues, "but what are these mothers and fathers teaching their children? ... Every time I come home down Soncy Road, I feel like crying. I just can't believe how many people are trashing our town and our world without giving it a second thought."

Litterbugs aren't bad people. They're just thoughtless people, meaning they don't think of the consequences before tossing out a piece of trash.

Strictures against littering were drilled into my head in the Boy Scouts and have stuck with me ever since. But litterbugs apparently weren't in the Scouts.

Ralph concludes: "So this is my plea, David. Will you, can you, would you write something to these people, these anonymous people, these educated people, professional people, church-going, upper-class, middle-class, lower-class, your neighbors, my neighbors, the people at the next Rattlers game, the next round of movie-goers, the ones who dress to the nines for a formal affair. They are everywhere. Do you think you could reach them?

"Perhaps ask for suggestions as to what can be done to help clean up this mess. The volunteers can only do so much and bless them for trying - it is a dirty filthy job, I know. It's going to take more than a handful of volunteers to clean up after the hundreds and thousands of people who are leaving all this trash in their wake."

I don't know what can be done, Ralph. But perhaps your eloquence and passion for the subject will start some people thinking.

Thanks for writing.

David Horsley can be contacted in care of the Amarillo Globe-News, P.O. Box 2091, Amarillo TX 79166, or letters@amarillonet.com. His column appears on Mondays.